Who parks long enough to charge
Car parks see every kind of stay. Commuters leave a car for a working day. Shoppers and visitors stay an hour or three. Event and rail users park for an evening or longer.
The longer stays suit AC charging. An eight-hour commuter stay on a car that accepts 11kW, at roughly 37 miles of range an hour, is enough to fill most batteries (LGA, derived). A two-hour stay still adds a useful 50 to 75 miles on most cars.
The North East needs the capacity. The region has 150.2 public chargers per 100,000 people, below the UK average of 174.9 (DfT). In city centres such as Newcastle, plenty of drivers have no driveway to charge on.
What drivers get
- A charge while they're parked anyway, with no extra stop.
- Prices shown clearly in pence per kWh before they start.
- App, RFID or contactless payment.
- Two Type 2 sockets per pedestal, so two cars charge side by side.
How a Victus install works in a car park
Layout and bay enforcement
We group pedestals in a block of bays near the entrance or the payment machines. A block is cheaper to cable than scattered bays, and easier for drivers to find.
The biggest day-to-day problem in car park charging is non-EVs parked in EV bays. Mark the bays clearly, sign them, and write them into your parking terms so your enforcement covers them.
Planning and siting
Permitted development in England was widened on 29 May 2025 (legislation.gov.uk; BVRLA summary). In non-domestic off-street car parks, upstands can now be up to 2.7m, and the old ban on outlets within 2m of a highway has gone.
One equipment housing per car park is allowed, up to 29m³ and 3m high. It must sit more than 5m from a highway and more than 10m from homes or flats. Our planning guide covers the exclusions.
Pricing and the Public Charge Point Regulations
A car park open to the public falls squarely under the Public Charge Point Regulations. At scale, the duties matter:
- Contactless payment on new chargers of 8kW and above.
- The maximum price shown in pence per kWh, including any fixed fees.
- Open data published free using OCPI, with status updates within 30 seconds.
- A free helpline staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
- Payment roaming, required since 24 November 2025.
Victus runs payments, the back office and driver support, and the charger talks to our system over OCPP. Before we sign, we confirm with you who is the operator under the regulations and how each duty is covered. Our regulations guide explains them in plain English.
Parking fees are a separate question. If you want a combined parking and charging price, check how the guidance treats fixed fees before you set it.
Idle fees
In a car park, a fully charged car left in a bay blocks the next driver. An idle fee that starts after a grace period keeps bays available.
The grace period should match how people use your car park. A short-stay car park needs a tighter window than a commuter site. Our idle fees guide sets out common approaches.
Load management across several pedestals
Car parks often want more than one pedestal. The charger's optional dynamic load balancing shares the supply across them and against any other site load, such as lighting or barriers.
That can mean fewer grid upgrades. Where your demand goes beyond what the existing connection allows, we apply to Northern Powergrid before connecting. The load management guide explains how it works.
An illustrative look at the numbers
This is an example to show the working. It is not a forecast.
- Assumed price to drivers: 54p/kWh, the September 2026 average for standard public chargers (Zapmap).
- Assumed electricity cost: 22–30p/kWh. Business tariffs differ, so use your own.
- Net price after 20% VAT: 45p/kWh.
- Gap per kWh: 15–23p, before payment processing and running costs.
- Assumed use: 30–60kWh per socket per day.
On those assumptions, one socket would make a gross margin of roughly £4.50 to £14 a day, before the costs above. On Shared Investment, this is shared with Victus on terms agreed for the site. Under Owned & Managed you keep it, less any management fee. Try your own figures in the revenue estimator.
Which package suits a car park
Car park operators who want the whole return and already run payment systems often prefer Owned & Managed. You buy the chargers and installation, and we can run setup, payments, monitoring and maintenance for a fee.
Landowners who want charging without the operational side tend to choose Shared Investment. You cover installation and groundworks, we supply the chargers and run payments, back office, monitoring, maintenance and driver support, and the revenue is shared. The revenue split is agreed for your site at proposal stage. Neither option is free; the packages page shows the trade-offs.
Honest caveats
- Multi-storey sites need more survey work. Cable routes, structure and supply location all affect cost and layout.
- New buildings have their own rules. New non-residential buildings with more than 10 spaces need at least one chargepoint and cable routes for 1 in 5 of the rest under Part S (Approved Document S).
- Usage builds over time. A new site takes a while to appear on drivers' apps and routines. Expect slower early months.
If your car park serves shops, the retail page covers how charging affects visit length and spend.
Next step
Send us your car park location, number of spaces and how it's used, and we'll arrange a free survey. You can also run the revenue estimator with your own tariff and electricity cost.